Whirl-Wyndham: Clark goes on front-nine tear to seize control of The Players Championship

PONTE VEDRA BEACH — Wyndham Clark is in charge at the 50th Players Championship.

But the "Big Game Hunter," so tagged on social media for his knack in the past year for winning and contending at tournaments with deep fields, will be the hunted this weekend.

The defending U.S. Open champion, No. 5-ranked player in the world and another in a long line of former Oklahoma State stars bounced back from a non-descript start during Friday's second round at the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass in which he was even par through seven holes.

Then No. 17 happened — in a good way.

Clark drilled a putt of 17 feet, 10 inches for birdie on the Island Green, which ignited one of the most impressive birdie runs on the first nine of the Stadium Course.

After a safe two-putt at No. 18, Clark made the turn and birdied four holes in a row, dropped a 22-foot putt for par at No. 5, then birdied Nos. 6 and 9 for his second 65 in a row to take a two-shot lead over Xander Schauffele (69) and Nick Taylor (68) at 14-under-par 130.

Clark pulled away from a three-way tie with Rory McIlroy and Xander Schauffele at the start of the day and was one shot off the Stadium Course record for the front nine and one off record for the opening 26 holes.

"More than anything I'm just super excited that kind of had a ho-hum front nine and then turned and really just got into a nice zone and felt really good on the greens and shot an awesome number," said Clark, who won earlier this season at Pebble Beach.

Schauffele, the first-round co-leader with Clark and McIlroy, did some nice damage control after a double-bogey 7 at the par-5 11th. He bided his time until the next par-5, No. 16, and canned a 9-foot putt for eagle.

Taylor had five birdies and three bogeys, then settled down and played the last four holes at 2-under, with birdies at Nos. 15 and 16.

Matthew Fitzpatrick (69) and Maverick McNealy (69) are tied for third at 9-under.

For the second day in a row, the round was suspended because of darkness at 7:30 p.m. But there were only two players left on the course, both in the ninth fairway, Ben Silverman and Ryo Hisatsune. They will return to finish at 7:40 a.m. on Saturday and the final cut will be determined (projected at 1-under) and the third round will begin at 8:20 a.m.

Defending champion Scottie Scheffler battles neck pain

Defending champion Scottie Scheffler (69), who had to get on-course treatment for a neck issue several times, gutted it out and finished at 8-under and in a tie for sixth with Matti Schmid (68 with a double bogey at the last) and Corey Conners (68, with three bogeys).

Scheffler said he felt a twinge on his second hole, and it returned on the 12th hole.

"So I got some treatment, maybe it loosened up a tiny bit, but most of the day I was pretty much laboring to get the club somehow away from me," he said in a statement to PGA Tour communications.

Two St. Simons Island, Ga., residents, defending British Open champion Brian Harman (65) and J.T. Poston (68) are tied at 7-under with rising Tour star Sahith Theegala (67) and C.T. Pan (68).

Wyndham Clark shot lowest 36-hole score for a Players in March

Clark tied Greg Norman (1994) for the lowest first 36-hole score for a Players Championship in March. The record of 15-under, shared by Webb Simpson (2018) and Jason Day (2016) both occurred in May.

Norman, Day and Simpson went on to win The Players in dominant fashion all by four-shot spreads.

Before Clark made his move, there was a seven-way tie for the lead at one point and players continued to take advantage of soft morning conditions with little wind.

Oddly enough, Clark said he wasn't thrilled with the way he was hitting the ball during practice rounds this week. He's missed six fairways both days but he's been pounding the greens relentlessly, hitting 16 in the first round and 15 on Friday. Clark is first in Strokes Gained Putting for the tournament and has made nearly 206 feet of putts.

"I didn't have the greatest prep on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday," he said. "I was a little sore, had some things to do, had to move hotel rooms a couple times, so I just had a bunch of things going on. I wasn't hitting the best shots but I knew my game was in a good spot."

Wyndham Clark's par at No. 5 kept him going

His "good spot" emerged after his birdie at No. 17. Clark then rattled off birdie putts of less than 2 feet at No. 1 and 2, 11 feet at No. 3 and 4 feet at No. 4.

It was then that he made what he called his best putt of the round, after he blocked his second shot at No. 5 into deep rough on the left of the green. Buried in deep rough, the ball came out hot and left Clark with his test 22-footer for par.

He dropped it as confidently as his short birdie tap-ins earlier on that side.

"It's kind of a crap shoot depending if you get a good lie or bad lie, and I had a bad one," he said of his shot from the rough. "I thought that the rough would pull it left and it didn't pull it left, so it went to the right and had a really tough lie and hit a poor chip. But making that putt was huge. That was kind the biggest putt of the day, momentum-wise ... keeping that mo going, and then I went on to birdie two of the last four, which was huge."

Matthew Fitzpatrick lost his grip on the lead

Fitzpatrick, the 2022 U.S. Open champion, birdied four of six holes from Nos. 16 to No. 3 and was 10-under at that point, with a three-shot lead. But he found the water at the short par-4 fourth hole, made double-bogey and finally got one of the shots back with a birdie at No. 9.

"I feel like it's Friday; anything can happen over the weekend," Fitzpatrick said. "There's still two days, so you never know, just another couple 6-unders over the weekend and you never know what can happen. So, for me it's just about trying to stay patient, just keep doing what I'm doing and go from there."

He did venture that it would take some extraordinary work on the weekend if Clark doesn't falter.

"Fantastic," he said of Clark's first two rounds. "He drives the ball a hell of a long way and straight. He's obviously proven that he's a great player."

Noise from two Golden Isles residents

Poston birdied three of his first four holes and shot 31 on the front. He staggered a bit on the back at 1-over but might be back on track with his first two Players starts in 2021 and 2022 when he tied for 22nd both years.

He shot 3-under 33 on the back in the first round, sparking a 69.

"Played the front better today, played the back better yesterday," he said. "It's just kind of how the golf course plays. On the front I was hitting fairways and hitting it close to the hole and made some nice putts, and the back was a little bit more scrambling."

Harman started the day with a bogey at No. 1, then birdied three in a row. He ran off another streak of three in a row at Nos. 9, 10 and 11, dropped another on 13 and more than made up for bogeys at Nos. 14 and 17 with a birdie at the 15th from 16 feet and an eagle at No. 16 from 45 feet.

He hit 16 greens.

What happened to Rory McIlroy?

McIlroy had an adventuresome day, with four birdies, three bogeys and only two pars on the front nine.

He tried to drive the par-4 12th hole (playing 375 yards) and tugged the ball into the water on the left of the green, and made a bogey.

McIroy got that shot back with a birdie at the 13th but he got sloppy at No. 14, needing three shots to get on the green and three putts. He parred out after that for a 73 and is tied for 14th at 6-under.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Wyndham Clark barrels through Stadium Course front to seize Players lead